All the Devils' hottest news, from notes to numbers to neutral-zone traps

Friday, April 26, 2013

Johan Hedberg will start in net for the Devils when they play their season finale Saturday afternoon against the Rangers at Madison Square Garden. So, the only way Brodeur will play another minute this season is if Hedberg has to come out of Saturday's game for some reason.

“If it meant something, I was going to play, but it doesn’t,” Brodeur said. “Getting booed for two hours for no reason, I don’t know if I was really up to it. If it meant something, I didn’t mind.”

Brodeur said he actually enjoys when the crowd gets on him at the Garden, “when there’s something on the line.”

“It’s just Heddy played well (in Thursday's 3-2 win over Pittsburgh) and he hasn’t played much and I’ve played enough games,” Brodeur said.

Brodeur had started 16 consecutive games before Thursday.

The last time Brodeur was healthy and did not start a Devils' regular season or playoff game at Madison Square Garden was Dec. 5, 1993: when he was two months into his first full season in the NHL. Chris Terreri got the start for the Devil that day against Mike Richter in a 2-1 loss.

The last time Brodeur even sat on the bench at the Garden for a regular season or a playoff game was Jan. 12, 1997 when Mike Dunham replaced him for the final 10:13 of a 3-0 loss. That was the season in which the Devils had to play Dunham in at least 25 games to prevent him from becoming an unrestricted free agent and used him several times in brief relief stints to get to that number.

"It's been a long time," Brodeur said. "I don't remember when."

Brodeur said it was his choice not to play Saturday “to a certain extent.”

“We talked about it when there were three games left what we were going to do,” Brodeur said. “The plan was we were going split the first two and if it meant something I was going to play (Saturday) and if not it was my choice still. But it kind of doesn’t really matter.”

Devils coach Pete DeBoer said there “a lot of different factors” that went into the decision to start Hedberg.

“Marty’s had a big workload this year,” DeBoer said. “He’s dealt with some injuries. There’s a lot of different factor, but you can imagine why would you want to risk something further with him? And on the other side, Heddy played real well (Thursday) night and is fresh and feels good.”

Brodeur admitted he would have loved to have had a chance to knock the Rangers out of a playoff spot Saturday. That possibility disappeared when the Rangers won 4-3 in overtime Thursday night in Carolina.

Brodeur had an eye on the out of town scoreboard while dressed as the backup Thursday night and it looked for a while like Saturday’s game would have meaning. The Rangers were trailing 3-2 in the third period and ninth-place Winnipeg was winning over Montreal at home. The Rangers got a late power play, though, and scored to tie the game before winning in overtime on Ryan Callahan’s goal.

“I was stretching out when I saw the score 3-2 for the Hurricanes, 1-0 Jets,” Brodeur said. “I was on the bench. I was starting to get ready.”

Winnipeg ended up losing, 4-2, to Montreal anyway, so the Rangers would have clinched a playoff spot Thursday even if they hadn’t come back to beat the Hurricanes.

“It would have been fun,” Brodeur said. “It would have been fun to have that challenge, but at the end of the day it doesn’t really mean anything for us. It would have meant something for other people. It’s still playoff positioning for them. They could move from sixth to eighth, depending on what’s going on, so that could be a different hockey team you play in the first round.”

DeBoer said that the coaching staff will decide the rest of the lineup for Saturday this afternoon.

"We're going to go over there to win, that's the plan and I think the lineup will reflect that," DeBoer said.

Defenseman Mark Fayne and right wing Matt D'Agostini both did not practice today because of unspecified injuries and will not play Saturday.

***The reality that the Devils will not be in the playoffs this season seems to be settling in more as they approach their final game.

“It’s like anything when you realize it a little more that it’s going to get to the end – we still had to work through the week,” Brodeur said. “The fact that we’re playing well too kind of rubs it in maybe a little more and getting some scoring, it’s a little too late. But at least we’re finishing the right way. One more to go and, hopefully, we’ll play a good one tomorrow.”

“And I’m sure it will hit more when you’re watching playoff hockey on TV,” DeBoer said. “That’s just how it works. I think winning games against Montreal and Pittsburgh and outshooting them, outchancing them, playing the way that we’re playing, I think it adds to the disappointment of not having that opportunity.”

DeBoer said there were a few positives that came out of this season.

“I think Andy Greene and the season he had. I thought he was outstanding, arguably, he might have been our MVP, in my mind, for how he played every night and the amount of minutes and what we asked him to do,” DeBoer said. “I think that (Stephen) Gionta, (Ryan) Carter and (Steve) Bernier followed up what they did last year. That was a big question whether those guys were a 20-25 game flash or whether they were for real and I think they proved that out this year that they’re for real and a big part of our identity and moving forward.”

The process of figuring out what went wrong and what happens next has already begun.

“I think we have to look at the symptoms of why we ended up where we were and try to get those rectified,” DeBoer said. “That’s the organizational analysis that Lou (Lamoriello) will do and we’ll be involved in that.”

***Right wing David Clarkson said he has discussed with his aqent whehter he will play for Team Canada at the world championships if he's asked, but hasn't decided anything for certain yet. Left wing Patrik Elias, who, like Clarkson, does not have a contract for next season, has already said he won't play for the Czech Republic in this year's tournament.

Center Travis Zajac said today he doesn't expect to be asked to play for Team Canada this year with Eric Staal, Claude Giroux, Steven Stamkos and Matt Duchene among thosee already committed to play.

"They're pretty loaded at center," Zajac said.

Defenseman Henrik Tallinder said it was possible he would play for Sweden, but wanted to wait until after the season is over before talking about it further.

Defenseman Adam Larsson said he was asked by Team Sweden officials if he was interested in playing and he said "of course," but has not been officially invited to play, yet.

Ilya Kovalchuk said Thursday that he plans to play for Russia and expects Andrei Loktionov to be invited as well.

Greene said Thursday he hadn't heard from anyone with USA Hockey yet, but would be interested in playing in the worlds if asked.

***Tallinder, 34, has another season left on his contract (cap hit of $3.375 million) and said he'd be happy to play for the Devils again next season, but admitted that choice is basically out of his hands -- whether a trade or being a candidate for an amnesty buyout would be consideree.

"The ball is in their court," Tallinder said. "It's up to them what they want to do."

The Devils had eight healthy defensemen on the roster, which looked like it would be a positive heading into the season because of the likelihood of injuries during the condensed post-lockout schedule, but, as Tallinder noted, “it didn’t happen.” The Devils were relatively healthy on defense until late in the season when Bryce Salvador was sidelined with a bruised right wrist/thumb.

That meant that was usually a couple of unhappy, healthy defensemen sitting out most nights. That is a logjam Lamoriello will need to clear up in the off-season.

About

TOM GULITTI has covered the New Jersey Devils for The Record since 2002. Prior to that, he covered the New York Rangers for four years. Gulitti joined The Record in 1998 after six years at The North Jersey Herald News. He graduated from Binghamton University in 1991 with a Bachelor of Arts in Rhetoric-Literature.